In 1949, Mr. Byer’s mother, Itka a”h, was expecting twins. Sadly, when her pregnancy came to term, she tragically lost the babies. The doctors diagnosed that she had a life-threatening condition, to the point that they forbade her from becoming pregnant again as it would pose a serious danger to her health. It was only by a miracle that she managed to survive the whole incident.
In the period that followed, she was engulfed by a state of deep depression. It completely affected her ability to function normally and had a dreadfully harmful effect upon the entire house.
Although he was only a boy at the time, her son Shalom (“Sheldon”) had been well acquainted with the Rebbe Melech Hamoshiach since he had visited him with his mother in the summer of 5710 (1950). “The Rebbe changed my entire worldview and my personal life,” he says.
After having a heart-to-heart discussion with his mother, he suggested that she “touch base with 770,” as he would customarily say to her on any matter about their home requiring some form of spiritual assistance.
She listened to her son and followed his advice. She wrote a letter to the Rebbe about everything she had gone through, primarily the tragedy she endured when she lost twins in her last pregnancy. A few days later, she received a telephone call from the Rebbe’s secretariat, informing her that the Rebbe wanted to see her in his office.
She came to 770 at the scheduled time and went into the Rebbe’s room for a “yechidus.”
The Rebbe heard her story in great detail, as she gave particular emphasis to the tremendous emotional pain and anguish she had suffered since the doctors had told her that she couldn’t have any more children!
When she finished, the Rebbe told her that the job of the doctors is to heal her, but they have neither the power nor the authority (“zei zeinen nisht kein ba’al ha’batim”) to tell her what will happen to her in the future. Therefore, she shouldn’t think about this at all, and G-d willing, she will have more children, regain her strength, and have much Yiddishe naches from all her offspring.
She left the Rebbe’s holy chamber a totally new person. She returned home with a renewed sense of joy and happiness, and everything got back to normal.
“In 1954,” Shalom recalls, “my mother became pregnant again, and thank G-d, everything was going well.”
Let us hear the story in Shalom’s words:
***
One morning, my mother felt that she had to go to the hospital to give birth. My father took her to the hospital and I came along.
Her doctor was at the Beth-El Hospital (now known as Brookdale Hospital Medical Center) at Rockaway and Linden Boulevards in Brooklyn, which was a Jewish hospital.
The Rebbe was contacted throughout my mothers pregnancy and was kept up with it and was notified when she was taken to the hospital.
We arrived there safely, and the staff immediately took her into the delivery room. Me and my father stayed in the hospital waiting area downstairs.
About an hour and a half later, the doctor frantically came out looking for us. He had just been in the delivery room, and his gown and hands were splattered with blood. “I’m losing her,” he said, “and I don’t know what I can do to save them from the complications that have set in. Pray to G-d for help!”
The whole terrible sight of the doctor coming out with his gown and hands covered with blood had a powerful effect upon me. I was filled with a growing sense of dread.
Then suddenly, I had a brainstorm. “Fool!” I said to myself. “Who knows better than you that when you’re in a difficult situation or facing a serious problem, there’s only one place to go for help. Pick up the phone, call 770, and ask the Rebbe for a bracha that everything will turn out all right and your mother will give birth to a healthy child!”
After about twenty minutes had passed [since I placed the call to 770], and I suddenly saw “the two Rivkas” arriving at the hospital. One was my grandmother Rivka, and the other was Rebbetzin Rivka Geisinsky, who had been very close with my family, primarily my mother, whom she knew through her work at the women’s mikveh.
— The Geisinsky family, headed by the Reb Moshe Aharon Geisinsky, was very friendly with us. They had been our neighbors in both the East New York and Brownsville neighborhoods. R’ Moshe Aharon was instrumental in bringing us “under the wings of the Shechina” and to our dear Rebbe —
Naturally, I was very relieved to see them, However, I failed to understand something: how had they known to come to the hospital? Who told them that my mother was here, and what her condition was?
When I asked them, they told me that they had been notified by the Rebbe’s office and instructed to come to 770 immediately. The secretaries informed them in the Rebbe’s name that they should go straight to the hospital where my mother was — with clear instructions from the Rebbe on what to do in light of her condition.
I took them up to the operating room and knocked on the door. The nurse came out, but she refused to listen. She told us that it’s impossible to come in and we can’t even talk to the doctor because he’s busy with a patient suffering from serious complications. He can’t come out even for a minute! I told the nurse that these women had just come to the hospital directly from the Lubavitcher Rebbe and they must give my mother an urgent message from him, extremely relevant to her health condition.
When we saw the nurse still refused to budge, since we outnumbered her three to one, we began to argue with her, and I started to cry. Finally, the uproar became so intense that the doctor came out to ask what was going on.
I explained to him that my grandmother and Rebbetzin Geisinsky had come with a vitally important message for my mother regarding her condition, but the nurse refuses to let them come in and do what the Rebbe asked.
“Let them come in,” the doctor instructed the nurse. “The woman’s condition is quite serious, perhaps even critical as to life. If someone can help her get out of this situation, I’m prepared to accept assistance from whatever the source. What do I care if it comes from another doctor or a rabbi? The main thing is that he can help her.”
When we entered the room, my mother was lying there in a frightfully unstable condition. She looked totally spent without a drop of physical strength, barely able to respond to us.
My grandmother and Rebbetzin Geisinsky told my mother that they had just come to see her on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s behalf, and he had told them to tell her three things that she must agree to do, and she must tell them verbally that she accepts the conditions.
From that day forward, she would take upon herself:
1. Lighting an extra candle every Erev Shabbos in addition to those she already lights;
2. Stringently going to the mikveh at the proper time;
3. Observing the laws of Shabbos with the utmost strictness.
My mother immediately said that she would accept all the conditions set by the Rebbe.
Rebbetzin Geisinsky then told her that the Rebbe had given them a Tanya that belonged to the Rebbe Rayatz. Once my mother had agreed to the three conditions, they would place the sefer on her, and everything would turn out all right. She would give birth to a healthy child and would merit to live a good long life.
No more than a minute and a half had passed after the Tanya had been placed on my mother’s body when she successfully gave birth to a healthy baby boy – my brother, sh’yichye!
The doctor literally began to dance over the miracle he had just witnessed. “I don’t know this rabbi whom you represent and whose instructions you have carried out,” the doctor said. “However, one thing I do know: He knows what he’s talking about and what he’s doing!”
Of course, all the Rebbe’s brachos were completely realized. My brother today lives in Borough Park, in the best of health, and thank G-d, has a beautiful Jewish family of his own. My mother merited to live a good and long life, passing away at the ripe old age of ninety-eight.
***
R’ Shalom pauses as he relates the story. “I don’t recall the exact order of the instruction the Rebbe gave,” he says.
In the middle of telling his story, he calls his brother in Borough Park, who gave him the precise order of the conditions the Rebbe told them to give over to their mother.
“As soon as everything had, thank G-d, taken place successfully, in accordance with the Rebbe’s instructions to Rebbetzin Rivka Geisinsky, my mother immediately brought the Tanya back to the Rebbe. The Tanya was a prized possession, once belonging to the Rebbe’s father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz, and he had entrusted it to these women for the sole purpose of helping my mother have a safe and healthy birth.”
“This was the second miracle I experienced with the Rebbe,” he says in conclusion.
The first was the Yechidus he and his mother had with the Rebbe in the summer of 5710, which changed his whole life and because of it, he remains a faithful Jew to this day. He was privileged to receive the Rebbe’s guidance throughout his life whenever the need arose.
The second miracle was with my mother’s pregnancy and the birth of my brother, sh’yichye.
The third miracle will be published in the next issue of Beis Moshiach. ■